[web] Using AJAX

How long is a rope?

What type of game are you thinking of developing? AJAX, like everything else, will work better in some circumstances than others.

Do a search in this forum. There have been quite a few threads lately about doing (turn-based) (multiplayer) games in Ajax.

I meant a real time, 2-d game space shooter. Not necessarily mmorpg (i know there are alot of critics), but I would at least allow a couple people to play with/against eachother

I don't think AJAX would be used here; try looking into Flash. The MMORPG game DOFUS is written in Flash and is real time.

Turn based is fine with Ajax... but you can fergot realtime. The reason is simple, you need to send a request and wait of an answer every time you want to send or receive some updates. It can takes from 1/2 up to 3-4 sec to answer (depends on the networks and server load).

Now, a good compromise is to make a small java applet which takes care of the communicatation (and keep the link open bettwen your browser and the webserver), and use Javscript to call java functions. Works but as any other Java applet you may have troubles about browser stability.

If you want more in deeps details please let me know (bertrand@nodalideas.com).